RE: One philosophical argument for existence of supernatural.
February 17, 2015 at 5:05 pm
(This post was last modified: February 17, 2015 at 5:06 pm by Simon Moon.)
(February 17, 2015 at 2:34 pm)emilynghiem Wrote: For example, if people have a SENSE of "collective society" "collective humanity" that is faith-based because we literally do not see all the people we are referring to.
We understand there is a body of laws or knowledge about the universe, but don't literally know what is contained there. So it is based on faith that such knowledge is out there, waiting to be discovered, or expanded upon.
Neither of these is a faith based position.
Our sense of a collective society is based on the observation of (and the agreement of) the society we live in. My position that I live a society where he majority agrees that: murder, theft, rape, etc are wrong, and not conducive to a thriving society, is based on the observation that I live in that society.
I understand that not everyone in our society agrees to the above, therefore we have laws to punish and dissuade people that engage in any of them.
I don't have to see everyone in my society to understand what sort of society I am living in.
As far as the laws and knowledge of the universe, again, not a faith based position.
All science is based on the tentative understanding of observed facts. Nothing in science is considered true, with absolute certainty.
When it comes to the universe, so far, the physical laws, work everywhere that we have observed (with the exception of the planck time).
If in the future, it is observed that this in not true, science will be modified to include the new observations.
There is never any faith involved in science. If a scientist relies on faith, then he/she is not doing science.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
